The Alabama Shakespeare Festival provides the students of Alabama an opportunity to see live, professional theatre at greatly reduced rates through SchoolFest, a morning matinee program. Nearly 50,000 students and their chaperones in grades K-12 from 63 counties attend School-Fest performances annually. To complement its SchoolFest program, the Alabama Shakespeare Festival produces study guides for all plays and invites teachers to attend special seminars at ASF that will help them teach the students about the play prior to coming. Instructional materials include information about the historical environment during with the play was written, the themes that the plays address, and the designing concepts and challenges of the production. After student watch a SchoolFest performance, they are invited to stay for a post-show talk, during which two actors talk directly with the students about the play and their roles.